“The Ukrainian people are paying the price for NATO’s hesitation”
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US Secretary of State Blinken visits NATO troops in Poland
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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets his Polish counterpart Zbigniew Rau in the southeastern Polish city of Rzeszow. Topics of the conversation are the security situation and the situation of the Ukrainian refugees. After a visit by NATO troops, Blinken holds a press conference.
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At a meeting with US Secretary of State Blinken, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kuleba urgently asked for fighter jets and air defense systems. Kuleba emphasized that Ukraine would win the war, but thousands of people sacrificed their lives for it.
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BAt a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba asked his US counterpart for further military support. His country urgently needs combat aircraft and air defense systems, Kuleba explained at the approximately 45-minute meeting on the Polish-Ukrainian border on Saturday.
“I hope that the Ukrainian people can see this as a clear sign that we have friends who are standing by our side in the truest sense of the word,” Kuleba said after the meeting at the Korczowa-Krakovets border crossing, which took place under high security .
Kuleba explained that he had asked his US colleagues to increase arms deliveries to his country. “We are satisfied with the already agreed deliveries of anti-tank weapons and ammunition,” he told journalists. Nevertheless, Kyiv needs further air defense support: “It’s no secret that we have the greatest need for fighter jets, combat aircraft and air defense systems.”
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Previously, the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj had urgently asked for more aircraft from abroad. Zelenskyy made the request during a conference call Saturday with more than 300 American senators and members of the US House of Representatives. He opened the conversation by saying that this may be the last time they will see him alive. Zelenskyj remains in the capital Kyiv, which is being threatened from the north by a gigantic Russian tank column.
Kuleba: Ukrainian people pay ‘price for NATO’s hesitant stance’
Kuleba stressed that Ukraine needs “air defense systems to ensure the security of our airspace. If we lose airspace, there will be a lot more blood on the ground,” Kuleba continued. He also criticized NATO’s refusal to set up a no-fly zone over Ukraine. The alliance said on Friday that such a step would open a direct conflict between NATO and Moscow, threatening a further escalation of the war.
Antony Blinken (left) and Dmytro Kuleba at their meeting in Poland
What: AP/Olivier Douliery
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“I think it’s a sign of weakness,” Kuleba said. “It is the Ukrainian people who will pay the price for NATO’s hesitancy,” he added. The US Secretary of State encouraged his colleague: “Ukraine will prevail,” emphasized Blinken.
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Kuleba said there was no progress in negotiations with the Russian side. “But every war ends with diplomacy and with talks, so we have to keep talking.” But you don’t go to the negotiations “to accept Russian ultimatums.”
“Ukraine will win this war one way or another because it is the people’s war for their country and we are defending the right cause. The only question is the price, the price of our victory.” If the allies continue to supply Ukraine with arms, “the price will be lower”. Blinken said support for Ukraine will not only continue – “it will increase”.
He said Ukrainian troops used weapons supplied by allies to destroy numerous Russian armored vehicles and other military equipment. “Just today we shot down three Russian fighter jets that were bombing our cities with the help of stingers,” Kuleba said. The USA, but also Germany, have supplied Ukraine with anti-tank weapons and surface-to-air missiles of the “Stinger” type.
Kuleba stressed: “Thousands of people in Ukraine sacrifice their lives – men, women, old, young – to defend the country. If we prevail – and I have no doubt about that – we will build a new Ukraine and this country will be even better than the one Russia destroyed.”
Blink on to talks in Moldova
Blinken is on talks with allies in Europe. After meeting Kuleba, he traveled to the capital, Chisinau, for consultations with NATO ally Moldova. The US State Department announced that he was meeting there this Sunday first with Moldovan Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilita.
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A meeting with Moldova’s President Maia Sandu and Blinken’s counterpart Nicu Popescu is then planned. Among other things, it should be about the Russian invasion war in neighboring Ukraine. Blinken also wants to exchange views on EU integration issues with representatives of civil society in the capital.
